Cranium Kabookii Review

The board game phenomenon is zapped to the Wii.

The original Cranium board game is a certified phenomenon, becoming the "fastest-selling independent board game ever." The game, which traffics in creativity and brain teasing, challenges players to work in teams to tackle events such as Word Worm and Creative Cat. Players sculpt in clay, try to spell backwards, and sing songs much to the amusement of all players. It really is a spectacular board game.

Alas, this is not a review of the board game, but of Ubisoft's Cranium Kabookii for the Nintendo Wii. In theory, this game should take off like a bottle rocket. The Wii Remote is a breakthrough tool for game play and should easily lend itself to the kinds of creative, silly events found in the board game, such as drawing. But there is always something that keeps Kabookii from taking off, even if its heart is definitely in the right place.

To review this game, I played both by myself as well as in a party with three other players, splitting into two teams (boys versus girls). Needless to say, Kabookii is not meant to be played alone and was such an iffy experience that I cannot recommend it to hermits or recluses. You have to have friends to squeeze even an ounce of enjoyment from the game.

After splitting into teams, players spin a wheel to choose the first event. Events are split into the four different Cranium categories Creative Cat, Word Worm, Data Head, and Star Performer. After the wheel settles on an event, you're dropped into a brief instruction screen if this is the first time the event has come into play. Then it's on to the timed event, where the team works together to solve the puzzle or act out the challenge.

Kabbookii comes with red glasses that let you see the clues.

In the art-based games, you must arrange shapes or draw pictures to get your partner to guess the answer. (Kabookii ships with a cool set of red glasses that reveal obscured on-screen clues and answers so the other team or players cannot cheat.) There's a music game where you pound on five stars to create song snippets. A word game has to tilting a cylinder covered with letters to spell a specific word. There's trivia questions, too, so make sure you are truthful about your country of origin on the main menu -- you might find yourself being asked something you cannot answer. The events themselves are actually quite varied and almost all of them have solid potential to be real winners.

So, what's the problem?

There's two problems, really. The initial problem our group had was the controls, which are not always intuitive. Newcomers to the Wii Remote seemed to struggle with drawing, creating messes instead of legible shapes. But even to a pro, there are still some problems with operating the Wii Remote in a 3D space. On the shape game, you can make the pieces larger or smaller by moving the controller away or close to the screen. This wasn't always effective. The mini-game where you must act out how to manipulate an on-screen object was miserable. The game flashed a baby rattle and no matter what you did with the Wii Remote, Kabookii wasn't giving up any points. This was frustrating to the point that one player was ready to quit because it didn't feel fair to her.

The other problem was brought up by another player in the party. He simply asked aloud why we weren't just playing the actual board game at a table where we could easily chat, look at each other, and socialize instead of everybody facing the television. That one hung in the air for the remainder of the game. My immediate response was that not everybody has the board game, but then when I considered that the board game itself is half the price of the Wii game and requires nothing extra like batteries for a Wii Remote, the point was made. Really, Cranium is indeed the kind of game that demands a social scene, such as gathering around a table with a bottle of wine and a whole mound of purple clay.

Kabookii is not an unattractive game. Ubisoft did a really great job replicating the look of the board game's characters, such as the Word Worm or the star from the Star Performer category. The color scheme is a dead match, too. The music isn't too shabby either, but I suspect you'll turn down the fairly innocuous tunes so as not to interfere with any conversation or catcalls.

The Verdict

Cranium Kabookii is a good idea taken down by some questionable execution and the eventual realization that not only is the board game a better value, but it's just more fun. This might be worth a rental for a family that just got a Wii and is still reveling in its novelty, but Cranium Kabookii just doesn't warrant a purchase.